Hello there again.
As I promise, I will start this rebuilding blog whit my friend's Mega Drive 1 which is completely dead :(. If you don't remember, it's this version (European). I miss a lot playing Sonic 1, Jurassic Park, Desert Strike... oooh, good old times.
So I started to disassemble the old console, which is not that difficult. Just turn over the console and remove all the 6 screws that are hidden inside those six holes whit a normal Philips screwdriver.
Don't forget to keep the screws in a safe place, you will need them later.
Now you have be very careful when you open it, at least the European version have a small wire that connects the power led that is on the top part of the case. In this case that is showed on the photo, the wire is long, but mine was not, and I almost damaged the led.
So, try to open it like this. You may also have a metal lid over it, remove all the screws and try to it looks like the picture above.
The fist thing I notice is: I'm not going to use (almost) any of these circuits, but Ill need a prototype PCB or something similar to substitute this old one. So the next step was to measure the old board and find something similar. As I said in the fist post, I'm going to try to maintain as original as possible, but I also didn't want to destroy this old little fellow. So, the next thing I want to maintain working is the Power Button, Power LED, Reset Button and the most difficult one, Volume Button. You are already thinking, and the ports of the controllers? Yes, I thought it so, and yes they are like normal old PC serial ports, and I already found a solution for that in this project: Arduino-USB-HID-RetroJoystickAdapter.
The red LED is easy, so I focus on the power and reset. After some research over the internet, as I said, none of the options fitted my need, but some research on Aliexpress can make a difference. So I'm going direct to my findings:
Incredibly the 10x22 cm DIY Prototype Paper PCB as the perfect measurements to fit inside the Mega Drive cage. The hard part is to make all the measurements to make holes and cuts to make it fit in the supports. Now it's up to you. I used a pencil, a Dremel to design and adapt every hole.
As you can see, after I removed the Mega Drive PCB, I cuted the fist prototype whit my Dremel to make it fit inside the Mega Drive cage. Try to put the numbers on the top, it will be useful in the future. Because the DR9 sockets doesn't have all the pins aligned, the best way to turn around is to make a straight (as straight as possible) cut to make them fit.
As you may realise, the DR9 sockets doesn't have the front plates any more, I remove them to facilitate the job to testing, putting and removing inside the Mega Drive cage to see if everything is right.
From the back you can see that those small plates that helps the DR9 sockets to be stable fits perfectly on the cutting.
And now you can see that, after some hard work, it's almost a perfect fit, as inside the cage, as outside, the ports.
It's impossible to make a perfect fit on the controllers adapters, you may notice that the right one is not competitively centred (because of the holes already done on the PCB), but after I put the plates, it's almost imperceptible. In your project you may correct a bit by cutting the holes a little more to the right (but then, the left will be a bit more to the right, nothing is perfect).
Now is time to test power and reset buttons. If you have some luck as I had, the reset button only have to be soldered a bit far from the PCB, and the touch will be perfect. The most luckiest part was the power button, because I miss the measurements for the switch, I bought it too big. But because the switch is a bit more taller, fits perfectly inside the inside rim of the power button, the slide (off > on and on > off) is not so smooth as the original, but it works like charm.
Because I want this rebuild to be as modular as possible, I decided to use the pins that I didn't use from the ATMEGA (Arduino-USB-HID-RetroJoystickAdapter) and solder them a little bit further and connect them to the DR9 sockets. And after a evening, this is the result.
After this assembly I decides to add some USB Ports on the right side on the board, to, in future, install a USB Hub and connect them to that port's, The idea is that they can be accessible from the side, where Mega CD was connected. I installed 4 of them to possibly connect Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and probably more space with an nano USB drive (you don't have much space if you want to keep it closed).
I added also the supports for the OrangePi PC, enlarging some holes to screw the motherboard spacer screws. Here there is no need to make measures, just use the holes that already exist. I do not close the possibility to install a Raspberry Pi, so I can always change two of the screws (the ones from the right).
And here you can see the fist test. You may are asking Why I put it here. There are some good reasons. The fist one is, if you see the cover, the only holes that exist for heat dissipation are located above this area. The second reason is cable management. Ill try to maintain them as far as possible from the boards, and as you can see, I can use the space on the left.
So, here is the above view, so you can see how everything it will be located on the board. I also added a 3 pin next to rest switch, so I can connect it later with some cables.
Now it's time to rest my a$$ AGAIN from the wooden bench. Soon Ill continue this post and so you can make your own project.
Since all the parts took more or less then a month from China, I suggest you start to buy some of the parts. If you know how to measure right the power button, please send it to me.
See ya soon (retro)gamers!
As I promise, I will start this rebuilding blog whit my friend's Mega Drive 1 which is completely dead :(. If you don't remember, it's this version (European). I miss a lot playing Sonic 1, Jurassic Park, Desert Strike... oooh, good old times.
So I started to disassemble the old console, which is not that difficult. Just turn over the console and remove all the 6 screws that are hidden inside those six holes whit a normal Philips screwdriver.
Don't forget to keep the screws in a safe place, you will need them later.
Now you have be very careful when you open it, at least the European version have a small wire that connects the power led that is on the top part of the case. In this case that is showed on the photo, the wire is long, but mine was not, and I almost damaged the led.
So, try to open it like this. You may also have a metal lid over it, remove all the screws and try to it looks like the picture above.
The fist thing I notice is: I'm not going to use (almost) any of these circuits, but Ill need a prototype PCB or something similar to substitute this old one. So the next step was to measure the old board and find something similar. As I said in the fist post, I'm going to try to maintain as original as possible, but I also didn't want to destroy this old little fellow. So, the next thing I want to maintain working is the Power Button, Power LED, Reset Button and the most difficult one, Volume Button. You are already thinking, and the ports of the controllers? Yes, I thought it so, and yes they are like normal old PC serial ports, and I already found a solution for that in this project: Arduino-USB-HID-RetroJoystickAdapter.
The red LED is easy, so I focus on the power and reset. After some research over the internet, as I said, none of the options fitted my need, but some research on Aliexpress can make a difference. So I'm going direct to my findings:
Incredibly the 10x22 cm DIY Prototype Paper PCB as the perfect measurements to fit inside the Mega Drive cage. The hard part is to make all the measurements to make holes and cuts to make it fit in the supports. Now it's up to you. I used a pencil, a Dremel to design and adapt every hole.
As you can see, after I removed the Mega Drive PCB, I cuted the fist prototype whit my Dremel to make it fit inside the Mega Drive cage. Try to put the numbers on the top, it will be useful in the future. Because the DR9 sockets doesn't have all the pins aligned, the best way to turn around is to make a straight (as straight as possible) cut to make them fit.
As you may realise, the DR9 sockets doesn't have the front plates any more, I remove them to facilitate the job to testing, putting and removing inside the Mega Drive cage to see if everything is right.
From the back you can see that those small plates that helps the DR9 sockets to be stable fits perfectly on the cutting.
And now you can see that, after some hard work, it's almost a perfect fit, as inside the cage, as outside, the ports.
It's impossible to make a perfect fit on the controllers adapters, you may notice that the right one is not competitively centred (because of the holes already done on the PCB), but after I put the plates, it's almost imperceptible. In your project you may correct a bit by cutting the holes a little more to the right (but then, the left will be a bit more to the right, nothing is perfect).
Now is time to test power and reset buttons. If you have some luck as I had, the reset button only have to be soldered a bit far from the PCB, and the touch will be perfect. The most luckiest part was the power button, because I miss the measurements for the switch, I bought it too big. But because the switch is a bit more taller, fits perfectly inside the inside rim of the power button, the slide (off > on and on > off) is not so smooth as the original, but it works like charm.
Because I want this rebuild to be as modular as possible, I decided to use the pins that I didn't use from the ATMEGA (Arduino-USB-HID-RetroJoystickAdapter) and solder them a little bit further and connect them to the DR9 sockets. And after a evening, this is the result.
After this assembly I decides to add some USB Ports on the right side on the board, to, in future, install a USB Hub and connect them to that port's, The idea is that they can be accessible from the side, where Mega CD was connected. I installed 4 of them to possibly connect Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and probably more space with an nano USB drive (you don't have much space if you want to keep it closed).
I added also the supports for the OrangePi PC, enlarging some holes to screw the motherboard spacer screws. Here there is no need to make measures, just use the holes that already exist. I do not close the possibility to install a Raspberry Pi, so I can always change two of the screws (the ones from the right).
And here you can see the fist test. You may are asking Why I put it here. There are some good reasons. The fist one is, if you see the cover, the only holes that exist for heat dissipation are located above this area. The second reason is cable management. Ill try to maintain them as far as possible from the boards, and as you can see, I can use the space on the left.
So, here is the above view, so you can see how everything it will be located on the board. I also added a 3 pin next to rest switch, so I can connect it later with some cables.
Now it's time to rest my a$$ AGAIN from the wooden bench. Soon Ill continue this post and so you can make your own project.
Since all the parts took more or less then a month from China, I suggest you start to buy some of the parts. If you know how to measure right the power button, please send it to me.
See ya soon (retro)gamers!
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